His Majesty, the Exchange Student: Exchange as an Attempt to Return to a Completeness Illusion

Thomás Gomes Gonçalves

Resumo

The article addresses the issue of cultural exchange program, mainly what it is referred to exchange in high school by adolescents from a psychoanalytic understanding, which means to understand the process in which the subject lives abroad and its relation to narcissism. From psychoanalytic theory and specific literature on exchange program it is proposed a theoretical understanding about the situation of living overseas which it may be for some exchange students in certain experiences an attempt of returning to a completeness illusion, lived primordially in childhood. It is proposed also that in order to this exchange student to have a genuine experience he may experience four different stages: cultural helplessness, His Majesty, the Exchange Student, Castration/Cultural Adaptation and Citizen of the World.